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Blog Site Discontinued June 23, 2017

Welcome. This blog site, healthy eating and food safety, has been discontinued as of June 23, 2017. I look forward to your comments and feedback regarding use of this tool to disseminate educational information.

Friday, February 12, 2016

Mindful Eating vs Dieting

Mindful Eating vs. Dieting

I recently read the following article written by
Michigan State University Extension.I
thought it was very interesting, so am including it on my blog.

Mindfulness is a practice of slowing down and
staying in the moment without judgment. In contrast, dieting is often
judgement-based and promotes abstinence from certain foods or caloric
reduction. Slowing down and being aware without judgment seems much easier than
dieting until you actually physically try it. However, there is some great
information available to help anyone who wants to start introducing mindful
eating into their lives.

Dr. Jan Chozen Bays book, “Mindful Eating – A
Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food,” makes
you realize that the reasons people eat are a complex subject. In her book, she
explains seven kinds of hunger and patterns of eating and how habits form. The
book explains how to unwind these patterns through six simple guidelines to
become more mindful of the pleasures of eating. Mindfulness truly is the basics
of eating and getting back to listening and appreciating what our body is
communicating to us, much like an infant instinctively does.

This article explores the third principle- The energy
equation (learn about the first principle, slowing down). In the last article, eating the right amount
of food was explained. The energy equation
is similar in that it focuses on being mindful of the amount of food we buy,
prepare and eat but this third principle of mindful eating focusses on the idea
of food as an energy source. Dr. Bays explains that when we eat, we take in
energy. When we live our lives, we are releasing and spending that energy. If
our weight stays constant, it is a sure sign that the energy flowing through
our bodies is equal to the energy flowing out.

The main way we get energy into our bodies (besides
breathing) is by eating. You can’t absorb calories mysteriously just by working
or looking at foods, you have to eat them. The release or flow of energy coming
out of our bodies is complex and may not be fully understood. However, we
know energy flows out in all the activities we do including unconscious
activities like keeping the body warm and keeping the metabolic factories in
all our cells operating. We also use energy when we exhale warm breath,
urinate, shiver or when we have a fever, energy use of this kind is called
“insensible loss.”

America has an obesity issue and although the issue
remains a complex one, in many ways it also continues to be an issue of energy
imbalance. American’s portion sizes, choice of cheaper calorie-rich foods,
grazing and snacking and other less-mindful eating practices all add-up to a
greater intake of energy than previous generations. We have less energy flow
coming out due to working less for our food, having more sedentary lifestyles
than a generation ago and more entertainment that requires minimum or no
exercise and reduced recess and physical education in schools.

Being mindful when eating involves paying attention
to what we are eating and what we can do to help maintain a balanced energy
flow. Making just one small adjustment can make a huge difference. Try parking
the car further away from the office and taking the stairs or taking moderate
first servings and looking at why you are taking seconds – hunger or
habit?

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